1904
Februay 1904: UX-1 returns to service. Both the UX-1 and the UX-2 crew certified as proficient on the UX-1. Test of tactics and operations using the UX-1 within 20 miles of port continue for the remanider of the year.
March 1904: Monthly hourly meeting between Prince Henry and Otto Schultze. Prince Henry has begun to develop a real confidence and trust for Schultze. The Prince says, "Over the past few months I have been impressed how you handled the difficulties related to the sinking, and I my staff has reported an noticeable improvement in the unit performance over the previous commander." ... "Due to issues discovered related to the salvage effort, the Admiralty has authorized an additional 4.5 million marks toward the construction costs of the SMS Vulcan, whose details you can get from my staff. The expected completion date is 1906." ... and and the very end of the meeting .."I need to explain the background behind the orders to setup the West African Squadron. This information is solely for your use, and is not to be repeated to anyone until officially released to the media or formal orders are cut. The Kaiser has approved a 10 year plan for a major West African Commerical Port, and the public announcement will be later this year once the details are finalized. Any major port, needs a naval security element, and I have secured funding and approval for the Western African Squadron to go active in 1908. The 1907 class of U-boats are to be assigned to this station initially. I need you personally to begin work on the logistical details of setting up the base in Doula."
Schultze prepares a quick review of the ideal characteristics for the a U-boat Depot Ship is prepared, and discussed with the Prince's Engineering staff. The ideal ship would be over 10,000 tons and approaching the cost of at least a large cruiser. The staff does give him three broad "suggestions" for use in Africa each using a ship around 1000 tons:
1) Any freighter over 700 tons could carry enough parts, fuel and ammo to support a fleet from any harbor that possesses warehouses attached to a dock. It would take a few days to fully setup operations, but after the transition, a squadron would have a functional base. The problem with this ship, and all other ships of this size is the amount of supplies they can carry will be quickly depleted in a war, especially food, fuel, and to a lesser extent ammo. This base would require regular resupply by sea or rail. The resupply issues are similar for the next two options, i.e. without regular resupply, it only allows a burst of U-boat activity. Schultze decides on this option for the initial Africa setup.
2) Additional ships like the SMS Vulcan which would excell at repairs and even salvage, but would would have even less storage than a freighter. This ship setup in any calm anchorage, and be operational as a base with hours.
3) A new class of ships similar in size to the Vulcan but without the Salvage capabilites, but with more supplies than the SMS Vulcan. The cost of designing a new ships would be the drawback.
Shultze then begins the list of items to be considered, and highlights included fuel, ammo, mechanical shop, electrical shop, marines, shore batteries, mines. He also realizes that a distant base will take months to replace injuried or sick personnel, and there will be need for surplus crews with each squadron.
April 1904: Schultze reviews the various subproposal to build two more UX boats in 1906 based on existing designs. The proposal from the Danzig shipyard is for 212,500 for one units or 412,500 for two units. When he inquires about the price drop, he receives a long lecture on how it is cheaper to do long production runs with good leadtimes than to custom design ships on a start and stop basis. Shultz consider recommending using just Danzig, but decides he would rather stay with two vendors at this point. He forwards his recommendation to Prince Henry staff for order one ship from Danzig and one from Kiel for 425,000 marks. The recommendation is approved without comment a few weeks later.
May 1904: Schultze submits the selected design to bid. (Losely based on the U-3 in OTL) The critical stats are as follows:
Speed - 12 surface, 7 submerged
Range - 3700 nm
Crew - 35
Armament - Torpedo, 2 bow, 2 stern with 2 reloads for forward tubes. A 105mm deck guns is added with 300 rounds ammo.
A month later the bids are returned at a single unit cost of 1.5 million marks. Twelve ships chosing only one yard will cost 10 million marks, and spliting the order between two ship yards costs 12 million marks. The decision is left for later in the year.
July 1904: Schultze tours the factories and is horrified to see that the UX-2 and UX-3 parts are not interchangeable, even worse the top speed varies between the two ships by one knot and the range varies by 100 nm. He makes sure both manufacturers understand continued business depends on a single blueprint for each class of ship, and he wants the UX-4 and UX-5 to be built on the slightly superior UX-3 blueprints. On the upcoming 12 ship bids, both companies will be required to meet in his office on a regular basis to insure all the ships are built in the same manner with the same performance characteristics. He then proceeds to his much deserved August Vacation.
September 1904: UX -2 is delivered.
October 1904: In a series of meetings with the Prince and his staff, it is decided to use two manufactures to build the next 12 U-boats (UX-6 to UX-17) to avoid single sourcing the U-boats. The U-boats will be delivered in 1907/1908/1909.
SMS Vulkan
http://mareud.blogg.se/2010/december/sms-vulkan-a-1-ww-submarine-depot-and-salvage.html
Doula
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douala
U-3
http://uboat.net/wwi/types/?type=U+3